Foundation pads have now been shuttered and poured. These are 'lean mix' concrete poured into wooden shutters (to define the size and shape of the concrete) that were placed into the holes dug at the end of the initial groundworks stage. These reach down to the hard rock substrate and provide a solid platform for the front of the raft to sit on, keeping it from sagging. No supermodel pictures to advertise it unfortunately!
For those that really want to know, you can learn a lot about concrete here. In short - a major determiner of concrete strength is the cement-to-water ratio - less water = stronger and a lean mix is a mix with a low water content. (The downside is that as its less fluid it's not as easy to work with).
So about 10m3 of the foundations are poured. 48hrs to cure enough, and on top of that a beam will run connecting all 4 pads and rising up to the raft. Then we have a radon barrier, and the raft itself! Then (finally) we can start building some walls and get a real feeling that the house is growing out of the ground!
22/4/2010 - The top of the pads having been poured to cap them off. Starter bars were retrospectively added to the pour above (change of mind by the engineer) and brought up
With Starter bars to hold the 2 separate pours together..
And capped off with a pour - the raft will sit on top of these.
And finally with the shutters removed and the stone leveled off (23/04/2010)
And finally with the shutters removed and the stone leveled off (23/04/2010)
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